By Ghadah Alrasheed

Introduction

Many would argue that McLuhan’s main legacy culminates in his prophecy about the “global village” and anticipation of the internet. In popular usage, the global village has become connotative of a techno-utopian vision, suggesting peace and harmony enabled by electronic communications. It has also raised concerns regarding the of this desired global unity for less powerful people, and its impact of homogenizing or even marginalizing cultures. While these concerns seem legitimate, they overshadow McLuhan’s other contributions to media studies.

McLuhan’s formula, “the medium is the message”, has had enduring influence in shaping academic understandings of what media are. The theory behind the formula is that media should not be merely assessed with regards to their effectiveness/ineffectiveness in delivering and storing content, but also as items that possess material conditions having influence on human perceptions and consciousness. To McLuhan, media such as the print encourages people to shape their perceptions in a linear manner compliant with the visual order of print, while sensorily rich media can help people rearrange their perceptions in a more active and organic manner.

The current issue, “Reimagine Race,” has emanated from the “Imagine Alternatives” assignment for the students enrolled in “Media, Race, and Ethnicity” class at the School of Journalism and Communication at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University. The assignment was designed with a McLuhanian principle in mind: at a critical moment in which the Black Lives Matter and Stop Asian Hate movements have drawn attention to systematic racism experienced by minority communities in North America, it is important to remagine racial structures and relations through creative methods and multiple forms of media other than text-based modes of communication. The students were asked for this assignment to choose media they were good at making or comfortable working with for the purpose of exploring race and alternative racial relations and narratives.

In this collection, 11 students critique existing norms and narratives surrounding race and attempt to imagine race notions and relations in new ways through different modes of expressions. It is important to note that they do not try to move beyond racial politics to reimagine the world through a rosy prism. Instead, they invite us to recognize unattended and repeated forms of racism, especially in its intersectional forms as it combines with oppressions of gender, class, and other markers of identity. Relying on a variety of media, these creative contributions provoke thoughts and empathy pertinent to race and represent ideas and feelings in forms that can be read, seen, felt, or heard.

Imagination as explained by scholars of color such as , the father of Critical Race Theory, and  is not a type of luxury but a “” for asserting power. By the act of re-imagining, we highlight injustices in our current conditions. We disturb current realities by causing – if not major overhauls – cracks and fissure in the oppressive systems. The originality of the commentaries presented in this issue resides in the use of imagination to explore new possibilities. They all seek to interrogate power and race relations from various vantage points and through new creative methods.

Lalla Maiga ‘s pregnancy infographic for women of color simulates a standard pregnancy infographic but counters its mainstream messages by catering to women of color.

Heather Mclaughlin’s digital painting, “bad day,” reappropriates the sheriff’s comment on the Anti-Asian Atlanta shooing that the suspect was having a “bad day” by transforming the criminal into a monstrous form with multiple eyes to highlight both the systematic violence and consistent surveillance experienced by women, especially racialized women.

Grace Girotte’s photomontage, “G(O)gogl”, draws on data art to deconstruct the presumed neutrality of Google’s search results and addresses its encoded racial prejudices.

Further reflecting on the digital sphere, Tyreike Reid’s poem, “Hashtag Concrete”, shows the implications of hashtags such as those used during BLM for black communities when the poem, itself, sounds as a protestant’s chant. Continuing the use of poetry, Grace Perkunda, through a painting metaphor, shows how representation of people of color in media is not enough, and more of it is needed to be fair to their histories and rich experiences.

Taia Goguen-Garner and Olivia Olivia B. Castaneda’s collages problematize discourses surrounding multiraciality and humanize the experiences of people with multi-racial background.

Arifah Baksh also utilizes collage to highlight the discrepancy between the coverage of Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle, which she traces back to Britain’s “stubbornly white” media and the lack of ethnic diversity in the country’s newsrooms.

Investigating racism in another European country, Ashee Pamma uses the medium of podcasting to comment on Charlie Hebdo’s racism through an analysis of the element of the body repeated in Charlie Hebdo’s caricatures to question their “psychopathic” tendencies.

Sheridan Worth’s sketch remodels the “pussyhat” used in Women’s March to challenge white feminism and turn the symbol into a more inclusive and intersectional one.

And finally, Dorota Babiakova celebrates femininity in its wide and heterogenous sense and challenges the common negative representation of Muslim women wearing hijabs with a painting portraying a women’s face with a red rose surrounding her and facial expressions that assert her agency.

All these creations are accompanied by essays from their creators highlighting their media’s messages and explaining the reasoning behind their media choice.

• Infographic: Re-Imagining Normative Presentations of Maternal Experiences
• Digital Painting: “bad day”
• Photomontage: Why we must Ogle at Google
• Poem: Hashtag Concrete 
• Poem: Do we Really have Artistic Vision?
• Collage: Too Black & Not Black Enough 
• Collage: Investigations of Mixed Eurasian Ancestry
• Collage: Stubbornly White – Reimagining British Media
• Podcast: Charlie Hebdo through a Psychopathological Perspective
• Sketch: Reimagine the “Pussy Hat”
• Painting: 3omri

The post [Millennials’ Voices] Issue 7: Reimagine Race appeared first on ALiGN: Alternative Global Network Media Lab.

.

By Heather McLaughlin

This piece, entitled, bad day, is based on the work on Vivek Shraya’s 2018 book, ąő’m The book details Shraya’s experience as a transwoman of colour as she navigates a Eurocentric world of surveillance, internalized and externalized forms of misogyny, culminating in her fear of men and assertions of masculinity. In this book, Shraya describes her experiences as a target and a witness to the over-sexualisation of women, racism, homophobia, transphobia, and public humiliations or violence enacted on bodies deemed inferior, with these behaviours acquiesced as ‘typical’ of men. As she navigates the world, Shraya is aware of the male gaze on her body and how this influences her decision to wear makeup or feminine attire. The purpose of this work is to re-imagine surveillance, the Eurocentric male gaze, as something monstrous.

This work begins with the image of , who was arrested for the mass shooting at on March 16, 2021, as well as the murders of at another spa in Atlanta, Georgia. Long targeted the massage spa and other women as “temptation that he wanted to eliminate”, asserting that these murders were not racially motivated; however, as six of the women targeted were of Asian descent, police investigated these murders to determine if these murders are hate crimes. The locations of the murders, while still to be confirmed, have also been the sites of investigations into sex work. The title of this work, bad day, comes from the media statement from Captain Jay Baker that Long’s actions emerged as a “really bad day for him and this is what he did”, resulting in public outcry against the insensitivity of Baker’s public remarks.

My work serves to re-appropriate the term, “bad day”, by re-imagining the gaze into a physical manifestation, leading to fear or horror. bad day is a digital painting, re-imagining Long’s image and turns it into a monstrous form of surveillance, as represented by extra eyes illustrated on his face. The extra eyes are inspired by the “many eyes” makeup trend, most specifically a look achieved by in YouTube, which was subsequently inspired by other works. Long ‘othered’ the women he targeted by turning them into objects suitable as forms of temptation and for removal. When a society works to keep people in the margins, it is easier to keep them under surveillance. While this work may be construed as misandry, or the , bad day seeks to pair the insidious forms of surveillance and acts of violence against women as perpetrated by men.

The influences of bad day also include the works of and , who detail the experiences of racialized people and women under surveillance and subsequent rationalizations, with such examples as street harassment, gaslighting, and the weaponization of anti-sex work laws within a moral framework. Long’s acts are not isolated forms of targeting women, resulting in death. shot and killed one woman, wounding 19 others, at Dawson College in Montreal, Quebec on September 13, 2006. Furthermore, the movement, or the notion of being “involuntarily celibate” via the rejection of women, has contributed to the deaths of 40 to 50 people in Canada and the USA since 2014 . remains an insidious problem in Canada, including sexual abuse, physical violence, harassment, and stalking, as well as missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

In closing, bad day represents the notion of being under the male gaze and how dangerous that can be. It re-imagines the normative ‘othering’ of racialized people and women, as a function of monstrous forms of surveillance. Long ‘othered’ Asian women in Atlanta, Georgia, as well as other men who have enacted violence against women, resulting in the tragic loss or harm of daughters, mothers and significant others. This work was inspired by Vivek Shraya who offers this last statement, “To this day, if I hear someone cough or clear their throat behind me, my body tenses up, shoulders raised, expecting to be a target.”

Heather McLaughlin is a fourth year student pursuing a double major in Communications and Media Studies and Psychology at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University. She is also an operations professional with 15+ years of working in the mental health and substance use system involved in systems transformation projects. She is from Gatineau, Quebec, and enjoys reading books and watches too much Netflix in her free time.

The post [Millennials’ Voices] Digital Painting: “bad day” appeared first on ALiGN: Alternative Global Network Media Lab.

By Grace Perkunder

Lines are scribbled on a canvas

Illustrating the page

With colours and shapes

A finished piece

It is colourful and abstract

It appeals to the eyes

I squint my eyes and try to write a story in my mind about it

But it doesn’t answer questions

Or ask them

It shows without telling

It’s as though displaying

Is assumed as understanding

We put our paints away

And wash our brushes

Call it a night

Someone needs to put their hands in every colour

To feel each and every one

And understand how they look

How they are treated

What we are doing wrong

Why blue is considered as messy

Unkempt

Why red gets more job opportunities

Displayed disproportionately on television

How the language of yellow

Is used ironically by the other colours

To sound tough

To make jokes

How purple is a mixture of red and blue
And it’s okay that it is two different things

But people cannot comprehend anything beyond

The primary colours

We paint with every colour

But without realizing it

We use them for one reason

And then hang our projects on the walls

And expect admiration

What is the use of creating art

If we do not dig deeper

We paint whatever lines we want

Without thinking about how we paint them

Representation of different racial groups is important. However, it is more crucial to focus on the ways people see and understand different races and how they are represented. My poem, entitled “do we really have artistic vision?”, using the metaphor of painting, illustrates the way that representation of different racial groups can actively oppress them if not done in a progressive way. I have chosen poetry as the medium to express my ideas because I felt it is a powerful way to get my message across. I was inspired by the poem by Maya Angelou, which was shared by the instructor in the “Media, Race and Ethnicity” class. This poem inspired me with the way that it used something abstract to illustrate racial inequality. The poem refers mainly to painting, and the fact that often people think it is enough to simply talk about race or representation without thinking about the ways we portray these conversations within the media. I compare this idea to an artist completing a painting, but the painting itself not being finished before the artist stops working on it. It is also meant to point out the idea that simply representing all racial groups alone isn’t enough, and that more must be done in order to ensure that their histories and their voices are being heard in a way that truly does them justice. Poetry has always been something that has spoken to me; an artistic form that allows me to paint a picture with my words. I chose to use words in hope to evoke a powerful message and display this message through a visual concept.

Grace Perkunder:  Grace is a communications and media studies student at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University. She has a passion for reading and writing and has published various pieces herself as well as through HerCampus ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´.

The post [Millennials’ Voices] Poem: Do we Really have Artistic Vision? appeared first on ALiGN: Alternative Global Network Media Lab.

By Tyreike Reid

Hashtag Concrete

The only thing stronger than the bullets hitting the floor

Maybe if my skin was made of concrete

I wouldn’t have to fight

Maybe if my bones were made of concrete

I wouldn’t have to run

Crawl into tiny spaces where I am rejected

Filling rooms that do not want me

Smiling and laughing with those who oppress me

Sharing food and drinking wine with those who wish to hurt me

In these spaces friends and enemies are blurred

In these cities that I try to make my home

Real life transforms itself into virtual reality

I crawl between the spaces

Between the wires

Between the sizzling sounds of computer systems

Trying to find home

Trying to find my concrete

My concrete starts in the east

And ends in the deepest parts of social hierarchies

My concrete starts in the east and turns left on community development

My concrete starts where those choose not to go

Where we struggle to climb the tallest ladders

Where we dream of coming face to face with him

The man

Tall and 6 foot two

Pale skin and wears a shiny suit

Makes the rules and laughs at you

Where we dream of asking him why

Is it because of my hair?

The color of my skin?

Or the way I chant and I sing?

Where we dream of asking him why

Is it because of my road, my hood, my blues?

Or the way I stand up yelling don’t shoot.

My concrete stands in solidarity

But we hide in isolation

Hide from those who do not understand

What it’s like not belonging to this land

Hide from those who wish to tell our story

Without understanding our history

Black, blue and bruised are the ones who came before us

Channeling their hymns, their spoken words

Dancing to the beat of their drums underneath the blazing sun

Holding on to their chains

silver and cold

Grasping at the idea of strength

A word and feeling so bold

Making sure their concrete collides with ours

Making sure that our concrete is written in those stars.

Retelling our story over and over again

The use of social media has been beneficial to many oppressed people. Many groups have used social to their advantage by using hashtags such as Black Lives Matter to effectively sign off on a statement or unify messages and users.

I decided to write a poem in which I, as a Black male, could effectively use my words and carry out a message without holding back any detail, much like one does when they are protesting and fighting for their rights. By incorporating hashtags into the poem, I hoped it would resonate with much of the protests and activism surrounding Black lives this past decade. The use of hashtags within my poem reflects the momentum and efforts that Black individuals, as well as BIPOC individuals, have taken this past decade, using the digital tools to secure their legitimacy both on and offline.

The poem is also meant to highlight instances of class and classism. Throughout the poem, I refer to ‘where I come from’ going on to say that ‘my concrete starts in the east and turns left on community development’. I use this to highlight that race and class have become intertwined; one of the many ways Black individuals face oppression is through economic oppression. This intersectionality defines the Black lived experience for a vast majority of the community. Not only do Black folks have to worry about being subject to ridicule and oppression due to their race, but also because of their other identity traits such as gender and class.

I use this poem as a way to fully embrace who I am and where I come from and to explain what it’s like not being fully accepted by a land which you call home, and although we might not always be accepted by this land, we are always accepted by our community; community that is depicted as being filled with crime, violence, and poverty, but in reality, is filled with leaders, artists, and scholars.

Through the creation of this poem, I am able to share only a piece of what it means to live in Black skin, and to capture what it means living through a system that continuously chooses to neglect its people. The main message through this medium is simple; we exist; people need to hear that there are communities who are struggling to heal, they are struggling because they are still being hurt. These are communities that are forced to find strength within their pain, rather than through the opportunities that should be given to them.

Tyreike is a fourth-year student at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University pursuing a double major in Communications and Political Science. Growing up in Toronto he was able to find a passion for the dramatic arts and creative writing. This passion has led to him using the arts to bring awareness to social injustices and oppression within BIPOC communities, particularly through his love of poetry. No matter the size of the stage and audience, Tyreike will always continue to share his art and activism.

The post [Millennials’ Voices] Poem: Hashtag Concrete appeared first on ALiGN: Alternative Global Network Media Lab.

By Taia Goguen-Garner

Too Black & Not Black Enough is a collection of family photos from my early childhood. This collage depicts being of mixed race (Black & White) and growing up in a predominantly White family. Growing up in a predominantly White family, my sister, cousin, and I were the Black people of our family although only being fifty percent Black. This became an indispensable part of my identity growing up as I did not look like my White family members having curly hair, darker skin, and prominent “Black” facial features. Recent media centred around the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement highlighted for me that mixed-race individuals, specifically Black and White mixed individuals are often othered. This is a result of having two races who juxtapose one another historically and systemically. The media’s coverage ultimately made me question my own racial identity as I found a lack of bi-racial voices being highlighted during this time. Too Black & Not Black Enough ultimately touches on my experiences being viewed as only Black by my White family members while not feeling Black enough to publicly speak on my personal experiences being Black as I recognize my privilege being bi-racial.

The collage tells a story of growing up in a White family while Black. Growing up, I was the voice of Black issues and the Black experience in my family as no one else was the same race as my sister, cousin and I. This greatly impacted my identity as I found myself identifying more with my Black side since I more resembled Black features compared to the features of my White family. Additionally, growing up in a predominantly White city, I was known as the Black student in my school and the only person of colour person in my friend group. Since moving to Ottawa for university, I have been exposed to a more multicultural way of living and it made me question my place in regard to identifying as Black and speaking on Black issues. This internal discrepancy became prominent when the media started to heavily cover the tragic killing of George Floyd in May of 2020. I remember sitting down with my sister and speaking about our own experiences with racism growing up and it occurred to me that she had experienced more racism than I did due to her having a darker skin complexion, although we are both equally as Black and equally as White. This ultimately made me become hyper-aware of my skin colour compared to other Black and White mixed individuals. During this time, I had many friends come to be and lend their support as the entire Black community grieved George Floyd’s death. I found myself feeling guilty as I knew there are privileges to being half-Black and specifically having my skin-tone resulting in me remaining silent when speaking about my personal Black experience. Soon after, I realized that thinking this way is problematic and promotes colourism. I realized that just because my skin colour may be lighter, does not mean I did not experience anti-Black racism. Growing up in a predominantly White city there was countless times I was othered by my White peers and my Black features were often a topic of conversation.

As I am drawing on my own experiences, I wanted to include a personal aspect in the media that could not be achieved by making a poster or a meme. I began to scan images of those who I grew up closely with. I arranged the photos to display the Black people in my family on the white background and the White people in my family on the Black background with the two images of myself in the centre. The two images of myself in the centre illustrate how I am both Black and White as they bleed onto both sides. Each background also has a border of the opposite colour to further illustrate the intertwining of the two races to make up my bi-raciality.

            Too Black & Not Black Enough is also inspired of in Black Skin, White Masks. In this book, Fanon shares his own experiences being a Black man, living in France . This relates to my personal experience of being Black in a predominantly White family. What drew me to Fanon’s work is his explanation of how the Black man possesses two dimensions; one with his Black counterparts and one with White people. Although Fanon touches on how he as a Black man assimilates to French culture to fit in, I believe that my Black skin and White mask works in the opposite way. When I am with my White family, I express, advocate, and embrace my Black identity, in juxtaposition, when I am with my Black counterparts I feel an obligation amplify their voices and minimize mine. Essentially, in both instances, I feel like I am othered in the sense as I must perform my identity in contrast to who I am with. Further, my experience as a half-Black individual has allowed me to wear a mask. I think this is something half-Black individuals know all too well as there is no “one side” to fit in.

The intended message of Too Black & Not Black Enough is to illustrate a story in which half-Black individuals often are seen as just being Black, especially when growing up in predominantly White families. Too Black & Not Black Enough aims to open the conversation surrounding how half-Black individuals feel othered in today’s media landscape as not feeling or being Black enough to speak on their Black experiences as they are privileged in the sense of being half-White as well.

Taia is a recent graduate from ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´’s Communications and Media Studies Honours program with a double minor History and Sociology. Taia has a passion for storytelling and research and aims to mobilize these interests to advocate, inspire, and drive change. In her free time, Taia enjoys spending time with her family and puppies.

The post [Millennials’ Voices] Collage: Too Black & Not Black Enough appeared first on ALiGN: Alternative Global Network Media Lab.

.

Inforgraphic by Lalla Maiga

By Lalla Maiga

The knowledge we have on birthing women and their childbirth experience emphasizes predominantly white, middle-class, and female adults. Most existing studies on pregnant women rarely focus on the implications of different social class locations on childbearing. Each year, countless women nearly die or die of post-pregnancy complications. This statistic disproportionately affects women of colour. By creating a poster representing the reality of childbearing for women of colour, I aim to highlight the intersectional oppression of racialized women by the Canadian healthcare system.

Media Development Process

refers to “death due to complications from pregnancy or childbirth”. Over each day die from complications in pregnancy and childbirth, with “approximately 20 others who suffer serious injuries, infections or disabilities”. Within these numbers, are three to four times more likely to experiene maternity mortality than white women in the United States. Upon encountering these astounding figures, I intended to prepare a poster that accurately reflects the inequalities women of colour face in accessing maternal health care services. When you visit Public Health Ontario’s website on “Maternal and Infant Health” or the Public Health Agency website titled “Guide to healthy pregnancy,” I could not help but notice the one-size-fits-all approach in providing guidance to pregnant women. Eurocentric perspectives and biases dominate the recommendations and guidelines towards pregnant women. The “Guide to healthy pregnancy” has an image of a white woman with a pregnant belly supposedly reading The Sensible Guide to a Health Pregnancy pamphlet. The absence of a non-white woman alludes to me that the guide ignores the diversity of women undergoing this life-altering journey.

Moreover, the language Health Canada utilizes in their guide shows a dominant characterized as “a vehicle for eliminating or controlling problematic experiences that are defined as deviant for the purpose of securing adherence to social norms”. The Pregnancy Weight Gain Calculator utilizes a woman’s Body Mass Index (BMI) to suggest the healthy amount to gain during pregnancy. A is linked to “adverse pregnancy outcomes, such as a caesarean section births, preterm birth”. The used to determine overweight and obesity is a determinant of obesity initially designed to determine the average Belgian man. It neglects the ethnic variances in body types. It only further marginalizes women in pregnancy by framing information that is incompatible with women of colour’s bodies that do not subscribe to Eurocentric epistemologies.

I provide this context to preface how I came to develop my poster. The information in the poster aims to subvert the normative presentations of pregnant women. For instance, I include imagery such as the woman with a hijab and a woman who can be visually characterized as black to demonstrate the information being provided is catered to women of colour. As you read the poster, you will notice the first statistic has a huge question mark. The reason for this is to illustrate the lack of data present in the Canadian health care system in regards to maternal mortality in BIPOC women. During my research in locating data that represents the mortality rate of BIPOC women in Canada, one of the only reports provided by Statistics Canada was conducted in 2015. The mortality rate was provided by age group and sex. There was no identifying information in regards to the race of the individuals. This paints an inaccurate picture of maternity mortality rates and furthers the knowledge gap of how it affects BIPOC women. Most of the data I have been able to collect was through independent researchers at McGill University and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The design of the poster mimics a typical poster you would see providing advice to pregnant women. This includes: simplifying data into a visually pleasing package, providing informative statistics of the rates “80% of black women are more likely to die in pregnancy than white woman” that highlight maternal mortality rates, eye-catching graphics and a colour scheme that invokes a feeling akin to decisiveness that highlights the authority of the information being provided and a sequential story in the narrative of the poster – introducing the problem (the lack of race-based data), the current data on maternal mortality, and possible solutions to allow the reader to digest the information easily.

Intersectionality in Maternal Health

We see and understand the world through our own experiences and views of reality.  As a Canadian-born, black pregnant woman, middle-class individual, I can see the obstacles present in the health care system where a non-visible minority might not be able to. I utilize these social locations I am a part of to identify the challenges affecting racialized women and the limited options of support. , a theoretical perspective, and paradigm examine the nature and consequences of social inequality in our social systems. A term coined by KimberlĂŠ Crenshaw posits that socially constructed categories of oppression such as race, class, age, dis/ability, or sexual orientation interact on multiple level. The intersection of systems of oppression needs to be acknowledged to get a holistic experience of pregnant BIPOC women’s lives and explore the health disparities for pregnant women of colour.

The poster I developed aims to critique how the Canadian healthcare system lacks race-based data and its implications for BIPOC pregnant women. Pregnant minority women are multiply burdened with their race and gender, leading to their lived experiences of discrimination. BIPOC women deserve the same equal respect and medical treatment to ensure the prevention of these deaths. Intersectionality is key to understanding how the dominant medical discourse fosters health disparities.

Lalla Maiga is a 4th-year Communication and Media Studies undergraduate student at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University, also pursuing a minor in Law. Her research interests revolve around the impact of social inequalities on racial disparities in public health and the role of food in identity construction. Aside from pursuing her academic interests, Lalla has just recently embodied the role of a full-time mom.

The post [Millennials’ Voices] Infographic: Re-Imagining Normative Presentations of Maternal Experiences appeared first on ALiGN: Alternative Global Network Media Lab.

By Olivia B. Castaneda

In the book Orientalism, Edward Said says “Everyone who writes about the Orient must locate himself vis-a-vis the Orient”. In other words, the writer of the Orient must align with the position of the Orient. However, Said’s insights on such tensions of authorship between the writer and the Orient misaddresses the need for intersectionality in race discourses. An intersectional lens captures the interrelated nature between varying social categories, such as race, gender and class. According to Said, “Orientalism is a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient”. The Orient then, is a label established through Orientalism that marks an abuse of power over the East (the colonized) by the West (the colonizer). If the Orient exists only as a target for colonial authority, then it is placed into the framework of ‘the Other’, the other who is denied the possession of a personal cultural identity. The phenomenon of ‘othering’ symbolizes those who are subjugated based on classifications of race or class, gender, sexuality and disability, alongside the intersectional experiences between those.

In my position as a student writer, I am compelled to think critically about my own relations of race and how the racialization of my identity as a mixed ‘Other’ defines my level of knowledge to write about race, that of which specifically involves lived experiences of multiracialism and sexism. I self-identify as mixed, and while the origins of my last name are Spanish, I am Filipino and Czech. I have white privilege in certain spaces while I am ‘othered’, exotified and racialized in others.

Viewing Mixed Ancestry: Exotification of the ‘Eurasian’

To ground my discussion around the normative narrative of Asian/White exoticism, I chose to create a collage that depicts my personal narrative of mixed ancestry. The aim of this piece is to reject the male gaze of ‘Eurasianness’ or the ‘Eurasian’ woman because it contributes to the fetishization of multiraciality. Shohat and Stam in say that exoticism objectifies “the colonized ‘other’ as an erotic fiction”, or more broadly, as an outlet of pleasure for the exoticist. In many cases, exoticism imagines racialized women in sexually objectifying ways that are rooted in patriarchy and white supremacy. For example, ‘yellow fever’ is a term used to describe a sexual fetish or obsession felt from a non-Asian person towards an Asian person, usually of the opposite gender. Similarly, the ‘Eurasian’, or someone who possesses ‘Eurasian’ traits, is also exotified. In my experience, I have been treated as ‘different’ but not ‘too different’ for white men, therefore being an attractive and accessible option for white men to enter both a racialized and sexualized space. This white erotic imaginary also transpires throughout the media and culture industries because it commercializes multiraciality as hyperfeminine, thus perpetuating hegemonic beauty standards that uphold whiteness and Eurocentrism.

Bearing in mind the saliency of exoticism, there are a number of objectives that were premeditated into the creation of the collage in. The first is to subvert the male gaze of the ‘Eurasian’ woman by characterizing the woman as an identifiable person with a social and cultural background beyond racialization. The second is to reorient the object into a subject. Because the mixed ‘other’ is a sexualized discourse, the collage works to personify one of many mixed-race narratives. For example, some of the self-sexualizing imagery was added as an act of empowerment and reclamation to the status of my body and sexuality. Lastly, the collage aims to promote self-expression, diversity, and individualism. While it demands the construct of visibility in the space of an academic institution, the primary focus here is to problematize and challenge the celebration of ‘Eurasianness’ as it reinforces colonial formations and the centering of whiteness within critical race discourses.

Critical Discussion of ‘Eurasianism’

Celebrating ‘Eurasianism’ is a white-supremacist and capitalist discourse that disregards the diasporic histories of colonialism and discourses where multiracialism and sexism of mixed Asian/White women are precarious.  In traditional social, political and cultural research, multiracial people were viewed as biological threats to society due to deeply ingrained colonialist structures. More recently, ideologies surrounding multiracial people have shifted alongside the rise of mass media. The ‘mixed body’, which was once an anxiety for stakeholders of hegemonic systems, is now a value-producing commodity for a global capitalist society. Such discursive anxieties are rooted in white-supremacist and colonialist perspectives that view hybridity as exotic yet miscegenation as pathological. These descriptors are just some of the highly repugnant racialized and gendered classifications of mixed people. Not only do they construct mixed race people as commodities and market them as desirable objects, but they also contribute to the internalization of being objectified, exotified and dehumanized. Through this digital collage, I demonstrate that the racialization of ‘Eurasian’ mobilizes the notion of exoticism as it constructs Asian/White people as mere products of Western power rather than culturally diverse and individualized entities. It also disproves anti-racist ideologies because the term ‘Eurasian’ conflates race and racism with Europeanness and colonialist frameworks. Overall, this collage aims to reshape imaginations of the ‘mixed woman’ by highlighting a personal identity and cultural history that replenishes meanings of diversity and individualism.

Olivia Castaneda is a recent graduate in the Media and Communications program from ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University. In her ambitions to learn more about multicultural feminism, she devotes research to contemporary discourses and narratives surrounding Filipino gender studies in westernized contexts. As a future pursuit, she hopes to continue examining the sexual politics of mixed race and amplifying stories related to experiences of biracial Asian-ness.

The post [Millennials’ Voices] Collage: Investigations of Mixed ‘Eurasian’ Ancestry appeared first on ALiGN: Alternative Global Network Media Lab.

By Arifah Baksh

While global media is generally moving away from prejudice and racism, has fallen behind. My collage illustrates racism in British media by comparing headlines written about Kate Middleton with those of Meghan Markle. Meghan is biracial and was born in Los Angeles, whereas Kate is White and was raised in England. Prejudice surrounding Meghan’s upbringing and racial background, especially when compared to that of her sister-in-law, have led to the tabloids’ unfair treatment of Meghan. My collage was inspired by the interview “CBS Presents Oprah with Meghan and Harry,” which aired on March 7th, 2021. In , Meghan and Harry discussed a variety of topics, including mental health, the media, and racism within the Royal Family. Since the couple announced they stepped back from their roles as in January of 2020, they could speak freely regarding the falsehoods perpetuated about them. Consequently, the interview revealed a number of racist allegations towards “the Firm” (the term Meghan uses when discussing the Royal Family and their public relations team) and gained traction on the internet. One story that went particularly viral was that the Family had several conversations with Harry about their concerns over how his child with Meghan would be.

The part of the interview that stood out the most to me, though, was how differently the media treats Meghan compared to Kate. To illustrate this, I visualized splitting my collage in half vertically. The right side of the collage features headlines about Kate, and the left features those of Meghan. This visual choice enhances the disparity that exists between the two women as subjects in the media. In the interview, Oprah asked Meghan if she was aware of the headlines, to which Meghan was, though not of all of them. Meghan was unaware of the more bizarre titles, such as one linking her love for with illegal deforestation. This, along with many other headlines, are used in my collage with those of similar subject matter about Kate. For example, Meghan’s full avocado headline reads, “The pregnant Duchess of Sussex and so-called ‘avocado on toast whisperer’ is wolfing down a fruit linked to water shortages, illegal deforestation and all round general environmental devastation whereas Kate’s headline about avocados was, “Kate’s morning sickness cure? Prince William gifted with an avocado for pregnant Duchess”. Evidently, British tabloids display prejudice against Meghan, and the theme of this portion of the interview was this unfair treatment is based on race. Afterall, if the subject of an article about two women is the same, yet one woman is portrayed negatively and the other positively, and the only difference between the women is their race, well, the message is clear.

These prejudices are present in the British public sphere. The , briefly, refers to a realm of social life wherein public opinion can be formed, and access is given to all citizens. Since these tabloids are available both in-print and online, anybody can access them and post a comment. The comments on The Daily Mail under articles about Meghan largely reflect the negative view in them. Under an article titled, “Meghan’s got the upper hand: The Duchess of Sussex is always reaching out to touch Harry,” by Beth Hale, the comments read: “She’s sooo patronizing! Harry needs to tell her to back off and stop treating him like a child […] Deluded woman!” and, “He seems more and more like an imbecile under her total control. And she’s dangerous and bonkers too.” Accordingly, when British citizens make comments free of restriction in the public sphere, they prove just how influential these harmful, prejudiced articles are.

Aside from influencing the public sphere, I would like to discuss other ways in which media can perpetuate racism, as oftentimes they can go undetected by audiences. The implicit racism in these tabloids could remain inconspicuous surprisingly because media is shifting towards equality. That is, because explicit racial prejudice and discrimination have become less publicly tolerable. Many assume that if the racism is not explicit, then it must not really be racism. However, there are many ways in which media can mask these viewpoints. For example, when the subject of a media piece is given little to no agency, they become the “object of social commentary and ”. This can be seen in British media’s treatment of Meghan. As is present in the various headlines featured in my collage, Meghan’s public persona had been framed to depict her as a vulgar, controlling, and discourteous person. This is especially poignant as Kate had previously been praised for doing the exact same things, such as wearing a one-shouldered dress, by the exact same tabloids.

This raises an important question: are tabloids such as The Daily Mail and Daily Express ‘required’ to release ridiculous headlines in order to attract readership? My response is simple: racist undertones are not necessary for an interesting story. However, The Daily Mail and Daily Express have both been in operation for over a century, surely they understand this concept. Why, then, was Meghan criticized for the very things Kate was praised for? One could argue that White readers of these tabloids would engage with texts about Kate regardless, so they did not need to employ striking or naysaying headlines about her. When it comes to Meghan, however, the assumption is their audience loves to hate her, and perhaps their writers, do, too. The Royal Family is a topic of interest in the British public sphere. Therefore, tabloids could employ equality when it comes to Meghan and Kate without sacrificing their audience.

So, why does this inequality continue?

The broader issue concerns diversity in the British press. While countless racial and ethnic backgrounds exist in England and the larger United Kingdom, “the British press remains ”. In fact, only , contrasting with the 13% comprising the general population.

This needs to change.

The identity of journalists is crucial. It determines what narratives are being fed to the population. As , director of the Media Diversity Institute, put it, “You cannot […] have fully inclusive content [that is] fair, accurate and balanced if you don’t have diversified newsrooms”. This lack of diversity has consequences on individuals’ relationship with the media. Meghan marrying Harry was a huge milestone for BIPOC worldwide, but one that was short-lived due to the high amounts of unwarranted criticism she received simply for being biracial. This has detrimental effects on those who admire her and/or those who identify with her.

Overall, there is significant room for improvement in British media. It is evident they have failed to adopt the equitable, inclusive lens that has become prevalent in the global media environment. This was demonstrated by their treatment of Meghan Markle compared to Kate Middleton, as well as how the public affirmed these messages. In the future, British media would benefit from hiring a diverse range of journalists to broaden the perspectives in their work.

Arifah Baksh is a fourth-year student in the Communication and Media Studies program, and is minoring in Religion. She is from Ottawa, Ontario. Her family is originally from Guyana. In her free time, she enjoys producing videos for YouTube.

The post [Millennials’ Voices] Collage: Stubbornly White – Reimagining British Media appeared first on ALiGN: Alternative Global Network Media Lab.

By Sheridan Worth

The Women’s March is a reoccurring event that encourages activism all over North America to march for women’s rights. Within the last couple of years, the march had a new approach that encouraged women to wear pink hats that represented a “pussy cat” when marching. This idea came to life days after Donald Trump’s inauguration. Many individuals, specifically women, were unsettled when this person of power claimed and supported the idea of “grabbing women by the pussy”.  The Women’s March in Washington now has an unofficial uniform: a pink, knitted hat shaped to look like two pointy cat ears. “Some crochet hats that look like cat ears (or, depending on the angle, pink vaginas) to wear at a march for women’s rights. are supposed to reclaim the word pussy from its derogatory use by people such as Donald J. Trump, who infamously said he liked to grab women by them.

The Pussyhat Project sets a promising goal to fight against misogyny. However, the symbolism used can be challenged as it misrepresents and rather excludes certain female bodies from the movement. Many females, specifically women of colour, felt the use of the colour pink catered activism to white, cisgender, females exclusively while silencing black women and trans females.

When thinking about revisions for an activism poster, I found it important to first unpack the ways its original design is exclusive to specific bodies stemming from power choice. The colour pink not only caters to white and liberal feminists, but also supports hegemonic social norms. Two females created a symbolic hat that represents ‘femininity’ while maintaining social norms. The revision is needed to abolish this ‘default representation’ and to normalize all shades of race into hegemonic power. To favor a specific colour in activism allows hegemony to flourish once again while silencing women of colour from the movement. “The neoliberal world order relies on a global system of capitalism that is inflected through unequal relations of . One can observe the focus on “white power” as each individual, regardless of their race or positionality, is expected to wear the pussy hat even if they are not represented in the design. Hegemony is active within this poster as all individuals are wearing the pussy hat and are channeling all female bodies into one specific category. This specific category sits comfortable in hegemonic norms as liberal feminists are encouraged to ‘fight the white man’ while silencing women of colour and their basic needs for liberation.

When identifying the hegemonic and neoliberal signifiers within the original sketch, one can appreciate a more approach for an inclusive revision. Intersectionality refers to the critical insight that race, class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, nation, ability, and age operate not as unitary, mutually exclusive entities, but rather as reciprocally constructing entities. When developing the new approach through an intersectional lens, I discovered majority of the issues came down to the colour of the pussyhat. Acknowledging this exclusion, I began to question the original design and the ways one could reapproach the main objective. “ helps politicize the initial catalyst. This intersectional sensibility is also expressed in efforts to create an inclusive political identity for movements. Thinking about this claim when revising the poster, it is beneficial to focus on inclusion and what that may look like to multiple identities. Revising the approach to be inclusive and intersectional, one would consider women of all different races to be included in the approach. I began sketching multiple hats with all different skin colours to represent all women of different races and identities. Consequently, I found creating multiple hats and separating the skin tones would also support the binary idea of ‘differences’ that are structured through hegemonic norms. Back to the drawing board, I recreated the pussy hat design to have multiple shades that segue into one another. This design supports all races as all bodies are united into one group to tackle activism. It is important to understand that each person has a difference position within activism, but all are valid. It is also important not to use privilege to silence other bodies from achieving equal rights and support within movements. By recreating the pussy hat to be diverse in colour, we can incorporate that approach into a new poster to advocate for women’s rights against misogynist claims.

The original approach design has a great opportunity to be productive as the initial objective was brilliant. However, with help of a revision through an intersectional lens, all women from different racial backgrounds could feel represented in the Women’s March. Without dismissing the original objectives of the poster, I came up with a revision that challenged the misogynistic claim made while representing all races within the movement. The pussy hat will no longer be pink but rather a hat with multiple skin tones. This revision allows hegemonic norms to be challenged as an intersectional approach includes all women of colour to be recognized and heard within the movement.

Sheridan Worth is a recent graduate from ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University where she completed her Bachelors degree in Communications and Media Studies with a minor in Women and Gender Studies. Sheridan is interested in topics such as Intersectional Feminism, Gender Inequality, and Benevolent sexism. Sheridan will be perusing her career in Digital Marketing with hopes of incorporating more of an intersectional lens when targeting audiences. She hopes to grow into a Human Resourcing role to honour inclusion and representation within everyday work experience and engagements.

The post [Millennials’ Voices] Sketch: Reimagine the “Pussy Hat” appeared first on ALiGN: Alternative Global Network Media Lab.

By Dorota Babiakova

My deep reverence of women is illustrated throughout my work as a visual artist. I have explored various themes of womanhood and femininity independent of the male gaze, which has often narrated societal perceptions of women. My intention as an artist is to highlight the raw beauty and power of the divine feminine. My artwork usually features a variety of female subjects across a diverse spectrum of beauty. I have painted the female nude as a tribute to the inherent beauty and strength of the female body. I have painted the Virgin Mary, unravelling themes of motherhood and sacrifice as she holds in her arms the crucified son of God. The particular piece I am sharing here is 2020 oil painting, ‘3omri’.

My depiction of the hijab as a rose is a metaphorical allusion. Contrary to Western misconceptions of the hijab as a form of captivity, this artistic device uses the hijab as an independent element of beauty, enhancing that of the woman who wears it. The imperialist notion of the hijab being used as a religious guise to cover and silence women is challenged throughout the themes of this piece. The subject is staring directly at the viewer, an assertive and deliberate artistic choice that challenges the trope of the submissive, powerless hijabi. By transforming her hijab into a red rose, a symbol associated with beauty and passion, it takes on an active role in her identity and the unique expression of her beauty, rather than something that covers and hides her. Western interpretations wrongfully associate the hijab, and similar forms of modesty practiced by Muslim women, with patriarchal oppression from their Muslim male counterparts.

It is critical to identify the intersectionality of identity, given that each nuance provides a different implication in how an individual is perceived by their respective society. In Western contexts, women wearing hijab are not only susceptible to gender-based discrimination and violence, but additionally face the threat of religious intolerance and Islamophobia. They may experience further cultural dissonance as a result of racism and xenophobia. Up until recent years, they have not been represented in beauty ideals perpetuated by Western media through film, television, and fashion. After 9/11, Western perceptions of visibly Arab, Muslim, or otherwise brown people, became radicalized and emotionally driven in fear of a foreign, unknown threat. in the United States identified “religious affiliation [as] a greater determinant of such discrimination as opposed to ethnicity, or other cultural markers”. As Western media, through both news and film, continue to depict Muslims as aggressors and terrorists, the practice of women covering themselves up in front of men has been widely accepted as another oppressive measure. My painting challenges this negative stereotype by asserting the sovereignty of the hijabi woman. The rose surrounding her enhances and showcases her beauty as the centre of the piece, rather than ‘covering her up’. Her intense stare directly at the viewer indicates an active role, rather than a submissive one. Her expression portrays confidence and resolve, indicating power in the face of preconceived judgement. Rather than being held back by the non-conforming elements of her identity that have been misconstrued, she chooses to be empowered by these elements and redefine her femininity.

By creating artwork that independently celebrates the divine feminine, I hope to communicate a narrative of empowerment that supports a woman’s freedom to choose. In a North American social climate where both systemic and socialized racism continues to affect people of color alongside nuances of religious intolerance, xenophobia, and overall ethnocentrism, positive representations are needed to defy these paradigms of hate and fear. I conclude my piece with a quote from French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery, “He who is different from me does not impoverish me – he enriches me.”

Dorota Babiakova is a 21 year old self-taught visual artist based in Ottawa, Ontario. Versatile in a variety of visual media, her work explores themes of femininity, diversity, nature, and faith. Her collection of fine art works can be found at her Instagram page @artbydorotabk.

This painting is currently being held as an auction item. 100% of proceeds from the highest bidding price of ‘3omri’ will be donated to Help Yemen, a local Ottawa-based organization that sends vital first aid and resources in response to the humanitarian crisis affecting 80% of Yemenis. The art piece is composed of oil paint on canvas, measuring 12” x 16”. Please correspond directly with dorotababiakova@cmail.carleton.ca for more information or to place your bid

The post [Millennials’ Voices] Painting: 3omri appeared first on ALiGN: Alternative Global Network Media Lab.